Sacred Heart opens urgent care in Pace

Dr. Brad Hawkins is one of the physicians manning the new Sacred Heart Urgent Care center at 4435 Highway 90 in Pace. He is shown in the patient lobby of the new care center.(Photo: Bruce Graner/bgraner@pnj.com)

There's a new clinic in town for Pace area residents, providing another health care option to take care of everything from sprains and cuts to colds and earaches.

Sacred Heart Medical Group has expanded its urgent care practice to Pace with a new walk-in medical center for minor illnesses and injuries, also offering onsite X-ray and laboratory services and business-related health care services.

And with an already-bustling urgent care center in Pensacola, Sacred Heart expects the expansion to be well-utilized in the growing community. Also in Pace, Sacred Heart operates a medical park with services including outpatient surgery, physician offices and rehabilitation.

Open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. with limited holiday hours, the Pace facility will mirror the services already offered at Sacred Heart's Pensacola location, with a goal of providing better health care access to Santa Rosa County.

Sacred Heart's urgent care center on Pensacola Boulevard saw about 175 patients Monday, the same day the Pace clinic opened this week, said Brenda Dela Cruz, who supervises both clinics.

"It's super busy," Dela Cruz said. "I can envision this being the same way."

About eight new jobs were added with the expansion, including registered nurses, doctors and office staff, with the expectation of adding positions as the demand for services increases, Dela Cruz said.

The facility joins several similar urgent care and walk-in centers in the Pace area, including Baptist Medical Group, American Family Care and Santa Rosa Medical Group.

The intention of the center is not to take the place of primary care physicians or emergency room treatment, said Dr. Brad Hawkins, a primary doctor at the Pace location, but to offer easier access to health care with the expanded hours and walk-in services.

Sacred Heart staff will work with physicians to get patients back to their primary care doctors for any follow-up appointments, Hawkins said.

"I think what's important to us is we're trying to get patients where they need to be as far as medical care," Hawkins said.

The new center also shares a building with the Children's Hospital at Sacred Heart's Pediatric After-Hours clinic, which relocated from the Pace Medical Park in April, allowing parents and children to receive medical attention at the same location during certain hours — something Dela Cruz said was a need observed at the Pensacola clinic.

"Parents were coming in sick too, but pediatricians aren't going to see an adult patient … so this is kind of a one-stop shop," she said.

The children's clinic is open from 5-11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 10 p.m. on weekends, with pediatric-trained staff available to care for most non-life threatening medical issues for children, including asthma, allergies, colds and flu, cuts, fever, rashes and sprains.

For more information about the Urgent Care Center in Pace, 4435 U.S. 90, call 416-5205 or visit sacred-heart.org/urgentcare.